Charles Wilson Peale, An Inspiration

Charles Wilson Peale with a mastodon bone

Charles Wilson Peale was an important early American artist and scientist. He had a large family and many of his children, both daughters and sons want on to create beautiful and poetic art of their own. I wrote a paper about Peale for my grad school art history class back in 1985. Little did I know what a lasting influence this great man would have on my life.

Peale was as interested in science as he was art. He managed to set up an extensive natural history museum in Philadelphia with his own resources that included hundreds of animal specimen as well as a full mastodon skeleton that he managed to dig out with the help of his friends and ingenious earth moving equipment of his own design. He was a man devoted to his family and his city. He remained curious and hard working to the end of his days, forever enchanted with what may be found around the next bend in his road.